The Origin of the Universe—

If we consider the universe we can say that it exists in one of two states. Either the universe has always existed from infinity, or the universe came into existence. For a long time people have postulated the former and suggested the universe is in an unchanging state that always has existed and always will exist. However, more recently discoveries such as the expansion of the universe (seen through the red shift of distant celestial bodies) and the cosmic microwave background have led to the development of the Big Bang theory. This theory suggests that the universe is not infinitely old but rather came into existence at some point in the past. This matches the idea presented in the Bible that God is the creator of everything.

The idea of a creator of the universe can be further developed by considering the finely tuned nature of the natural laws that govern the universe. On a base level this can be thought of by contemplating the precise nature of these laws. An example of this is the law of gravity. The strength of the force between two objects with mass is described by an inverse square law. This means that if the distance between two objects is doubled, the strength of the force between them decreases by a factor of four. Now this inverse square law is very important as it allows things like planets to maintain stable orbits around stars. But there is no reason for these laws to be so neat. It is possible to conceive a universe in which the law of gravity is not an inverse square law, but follows some other system such as an inverse cubed law. Any universe in which gravity acted differently would be a chaotic universe in which there could be no life. The fact that our universe is so precise and so well suited to life suggests that there was an intelligent creator behind it. And this idea can be explored much further by considering the incredibly fine balance between the four fundamental forces or the balance between the Planck constant and the speed of light.

The origin of such a finely tuned universe requires a divine creator.

The Origin of Life—

We can find more evidence for the existence of a divine creator by looking at life. We live on a planet that is teeming with a vast variety of fascinating organisms. Everywhere we look we see plants and animals whether it be birds or insects or most often other humans. This might lead us to think that life is therefore fairly common and can come into existence through random chance, given enough time. However the more we learn about the inner working of life itself the more unlikely this seems. It was not very long ago that cells were thought to be blobs of jelly with a nucleus in the middle. Now, through scientific and technological development, we are able to look at cells in a clearer light and see the incredible amounts of complicated activity that goes on within them. There are now shelves in libraries full of thick textbooks that solely look at the cell and the structures and processes contained within them.

To illustrate the complexity of life, let us briefly consider the process that occurs within one of the cells of our bodies to produce a protein. Proteins are long chains of amino acids which have various functions in the cell. The simplest proteins are simple strands used for supporting structures whilst the more complicated proteins are effectively microscopic machines called enzymes that each have a specific job within the cell . Although it would be possible for the cell to create a protein by randomly combining amino acids together it would be impossible to produce a protein that would ever be useful to the cell. Instead, the cell has a catalogue of the amino acids needed to produce the specific proteins it needs. This information is stored in the famously curled strands of DNA found within the nucleus of the cell. When a new protein needs to be produced, the relevant section of genetic information is copied from the DNA to mRNA within the nucleus. The mRNA the then exits the nucleus and passes through a structure contained within the cell called a ribosome. Within the ribosome, each small section of mRNA is matched with a corresponding molecule of tRNA. Each molecule of tRNA is bound to the amino acid that matches a specific triplet of genetic information. When each tRNA molecule matches with a section of mRNA, the amino acid carried by the tRNA is added on to the chain of amino acids, thus forming the protein.

This description of protein synthesis highlights the fact that cells are far more than blobs of jelly. They are extremely complicated and we have only just scratched the surface of the complexity of protein synthesis, let alone all the other processes that occur within the cell such as DNA replication. When we consider the fact that cells contain a digital code that allows them to produce the micro-machines required to produce more micro-machines it starts to become difficult to picture this happening by chance. The common response to this is to suggest that as the universe is very large and fairly old, it is not that unlikely for life to have popped into existence eventually. However, the more we learn about how life works, the more impossible its random formation seems. And when we do calculations to look at the possibility of creating the simplest possible form of life by chance we find that the universe is most definitely not big enough or old enough.